So should you pay up to $35 for their lowest 5GB plan, you just might be able to actually watch two HD films. Of course you can go over your limit if you're willing to pay $1 per additional gigabyte, a markup over cost of only 1,000 to 1,500% by Time Warner Cable. That's a bad deal however you slice it -- unless you work in marketing.

I can see Apple (iTunes), Amazon (UnBox), and Netflix all fighting the cable companies on this, as they would all be at risk of losing customers who feel they'd be paying twice for one product.

These stores would probably make a deal with the cable companies where their stuff doesn't get counted towards your bandwidth quota. That would have the added benefit of discouraging piracy, as bittorrent and the like would fill your quota quite quickly.

Either that, or more likely the cable companies will offer their own PPV-style movie downloads for just a bit less than the competition, with no quota if you buy from them. If for example you prefer Netflix, you not only pay Netflix's higher purchase price but it also eats your quota. With the current trend in Congress and the White House towards protecting the media companies even at the risk of national security, I can see them getting away with such a racket.